500. Intelligentsia: Brains and Books or Diddled Dupes?

BROWDERBOOKS

For anyone who missed my ZOOM interview, here is a link to it on YouTube:   https://youtu.be/Esx0YYYQw8I

Another excellent review of Forbidden Brownstones, this one from Sublime Book Review.  The conclusion: “Forbidden Brownstones is an addictive novel that will charm, entertain, and mesmerize you; five stars for this wonderful, compelling read.”  The novel is available from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

INTELLIGENTSIA:  BRAINS  AND  BOOKS

                 OR  DIDDLED  DUPES?

I inherited a subscription to the New York Review of Books from my deceased partner Bob and now subscribe to it on my own.   Compared to its thorough reviews, those in the New York Times look flimsy.  But often it's the Classifieds section, next to the last page of the publication, that grabs me.   It's a perfect example of targeted marketing, when advertisers want to each a very specific and limited audience.  In this case, the intelligentsia, by which I mean people who read, write, and edit books, and ponder and debate their content.  In other words, intellectuals, a suspect group whose existence annoys both the hoi polloi and the politicians who covet their votes.  But these ads tell us a lot about who and what the intelligentsia are, their moods and needs and desires.  So let's find out who we are.  

"We?"  Yes, we.  Because readers of this blog, like the writer, fall into that class.  Like it or not, this is about us.  We'll look at the issue of NYRB of January 14, 2021.

First, there are the personals, usually older people seeking companionship: a "single gentleman, 71, good-looking and active," seeks a liaison with an "attractive unattached lady under 50."  Or an "MWM ERROR THEORIST" (yes, all in caps) wants to meet a "compatible F."  Common enough, let's wish them (us) all well. But how about these?

• TATTOOED, PIERCED, undercut-having, leather jacket-clad pansexual East Asian femme seeks whiskey-drinking, artifice-touting, anti-authoritarian aesthete to while the hours away with.  Accepting applications for both virtue & sin."
• WIDOWED MARGRAVE SEEKS RESPITE from coterie of sycophants.  Enclose your most prurient poem.

The first is eye-catching, but the second tops it.  And her e-mail address is lasciviousmargrave@xxxxx.  But maybe this one isn't us. She's allegedly a margrave; we are not.

Under PERSONAL SERVICES I find "EXCECELLENT MASSAGE BY EVA," prompting me to wonder just how "personal" it is.  (Honni soit qui mal y pense.)

And there is much more:

• a vacation rental for Yellowstone in winter;
• a full-floor condo in Paris;
• someone unnamed offering the "unfiltered truth" about your relationships; 
• someone offering to buy "mid-century design furniture"; 
• someone looking for philanthropic funding to save the planet;
• a "charismatic, aging French rock star" who will write an original song for you, your mom, your lover, or your pet in French, English, or Franglais;
• a ghost writer eager to help you write your book;
• PROUST-INK, a website selling an online course in Proust, and mugs and T-shirts bearing the master's image.

The biggest ad is for AIRBRUSH, the World's Finest Eye Cream, reg $68 but now only $54.40, though we can also have La Mer Eye Balm for $200.   

The most mysterious ad is for Athena Pheromones, a fragrance guaranteed to increase your attractiveness.  Discovered in 1986 by a Ph.D. in biology, it is not sold in stores, but has been proven 74% effective in two 8-week studies, and 68% effective in a 3rd 8-week study, $99.50 for men and $98.50 for women, free shipping in the US.

So what is one to make of all this?  The American intelligentsia (i.e., us)

• craves companionship, maybe with a massage (hmm) thrown in;
• likes to travel and live abroad;
• needs to know the truth about its relationships;
• wants to save the planet;
• wants design furniture;
• will pay for a song, even in a bastard French corrupted by English,  for its lover, mom, or pet;
• needs help in writing its book;
• has eyes in need of a cream or a balm (maybe from squinting too much at the fine print of academic publications);
• will pay almost a hundred dollars to boost its attractiveness.

But there is also another possibility: we are grievously insecure, and our insecurity makes us a prime target for every con, dodge, diddle, rip-off, and hoax conceivable.  So which one are we?  Your choice.  Probe hard, think, dig deep. 

©  2021 Clifford Browder